Embattled manager Lott says ‘fire Davis,’ who fired Strang, who wants Lott to let her have her job back
By Kevin Hogencamp
In the wake of a criminal scandal in his office and amid another case of missing public funds on his watch, Albany City Manager Alfred Lott says it is City Attorney Nathan Davis – not Lott – who needs to be terminated.
Public records provide the dirty details – including Lott’s claim that Davis is mentally unstable, partly due to Davis’ son’s recent suicide. Lott is basing his recommendation on Strang’s discovery that Davis had a handgun and combat knife in his office drawer at the police station.
Meanwhile, to add to the chaos, Davis is still attempting to fire Assistant City Attorney Kathy Strang – and for the second time in two months, only Lott stands in his way. Davis says Strang’s transgressions range from theft of city funds to talking disparagingly about city officials to hoarding.
In addition to being consistently outed in news reports for law and policy violations during his tenure, Lott is reeling from a recent Georgia Bureau of Investigation probe and trial that resulted in his downtown manager, Don Buie, being imprisoned for a year on public fraud charges. Before the investigation began, Lott concealed Buie’s action by illegally withholding records from the public.
Now, Lott refuses to publicly provide information on the whereabouts of $374,000 in city-administered taxpayer funds that was intended to be spent on a housing project undertaken by Cutliff Grove Family Resource Center.
In both cases, the City Commission has largely been silent and complicit; indeed, Lott was not punished for allow Buie’s crimes to occur, and rather than insist on a criminal investigation into the missing Cutliff Grove funds, the commission on Tuesday voted to do nothing for at least 60 additional days.
Meanwhile, Davis was suspended by the City Commission for three days, in spite of Lott’s efforts to have Davis terminated, after Strang reported that Davis had a gun and combat knife in his office in the Albany police station.
Following are two recent memorandums: one written by Lott seeking Davis’ ouster; the other written by Davis recommending that Strang be fired.
Davis: Strang guilty of theft, cursing, hoarding
Editor’s note: Albany City Attorney Nathan Davis wrote this “notice of recommendation to dismissal” to Assistant City Attorney Kathy Strang, who responded by appealing her termination to Lott, who has not yet conducted an appeal hearing. Davis and Lott are City Commission appointees, thus Lott has not superiority over Davis, except that he can Davis’ disciplinary action.
Dear Kathy,
This letter is to provide you with notice of a recommendation that your at-will employment with the City of Albany be terminated.
Your termination has been recommended based upon misconduct, negligence, inefficiency and the inability to perform the required duties satisfactorily. This decision was based on your cumulative conduct, the items identified in your Coaching Plan and your violation of the City’s policy against outside employment. Your conduct, as summarized below, did not exhibit the professionalism expected of an attorney for the City of Albany.
- Notably, an individual resigned her employment with this office in June 2008 in response to your conduct toward her; you never established any relationship with the Risk Management office, an office we have to work with on a daily basis; and you continued to have poor working relationships with fellow staff members.
- For several years you have talked disparagingly of City officials and employees.
- For several years you have engaged in verbal outbursts that included racially derogatory language and sexist language including calling a coworker a “bitch.”
- You failed to reimburse the City for personal use of the cell phone, long distance, and travel. You were requested numerous times for such items and to date you have not.
- It is undisputed that you missed the plaintiff’s and Mr. Vy Chu’s deposition in Warren v. Vy Chu in October 2009. The City’s interest went unrepresented in this matter. You were explicitly instructed to go to the deposition and failed to do so.
- You failed to take into account the interest of others in the office whether it be your recent failure to respond to Chris Washington’s invitation to the entire office to attend the luncheon at Phoebe Northwest honoring Administrative Professionals; or the impact of your unsightly office and the burden you placed on everyone on this floor by constantly “loading” the break-room refrigerator with your items. You then failed to clean up the refrigerator. I requested on numerous occasions for you to clean your office and yet you failed to do so. Currently, your office still has numerous half-eaten food items and trash.
- You failed to successfully improve even though you were given a Coaching Plan of Jan. 8, 2010. The focus of the Plan was a Darton College online communication program as well as written report from you demonstrating how you would improve. The class was paid for by the City in January 2010. Notably among your comments about the communications program were a difficulty in registering; the answer you had as to the report was always that you had started on it, but nothing more. You failed to start or complete the class in a timely manner. In any event you never brought to any of the Plan meetings any documentation concerning the communications program or the report. In addition, you never made any effort to strengthen your relationship with office staff.
- You would not follow requests that rough draft briefs and pleadings be prepared well in advance of the due date.
- The final straw is that this office became aware in late April early May 2010 that you have used City assets to perform work for an attorney in Hinesville, Georgia and to solicit work with the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council. It bears repeating that you used another computer in the office to contact the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council – the point is you knew such conduct was not authorized. There are numerous calls to Hinesville, yet you had no City work in Hinesville. This is in direct violation of City policy.
As you are well aware, you are free to request a pre-termination hearing before the City Manager.
Lott: Davis planning a murder-suicide?
Editor’s note: This is a memorandum Albany City Manager Alfred Lott sent to the City Commission under the title “Deadly Weapon in the Workplace: Unauthorized Gun and Knife in Office; An admission by Nathan Davis, City Attorney.”
I am writing this note to you with apprehension and trepidation. I personally like Nathan Davis and find him to be a generally competent city attorney. However, under these circumstances, I have a duty as City Manager to express my professional concerns to the City Commission in writing. If some asks what did the City Manager say? Here is the answer to that question.
Situation:
- City Attorney Nathan Davis admitted that brought and kept a loaded gun and large knife suitable for combat into his office.
- Mr. Davis claims to have removed the gun and knife on the evening of April 1, 2010. This claim has not been verified.
- When asked why, he stated that he did not know. He also indicated that he did not know whether his actions were illegal or not. In summary, he said that he did not know.
Concerns:
- General safety of other employees:
- What were his real intentions involving the weapons? Whom was he planning to shoot or stab?
- Did he remove the weapons or just change the hiding location? When will he bring these or other weapons back to the workplace? If he brings the deadly weapons back, whom will he shoot or stab? His actions indicate that he may be a threat to other employees! If he is retained, how can we be sure that he will not bring his gun to work and start shooting employees or residents at City Hall and the LEC?
- How do we handle employees who feel threatened by his presence in the work force? Who will be inclined to disagree with him or challenge him knowing he has no regard for rules and may go berserk? Murder suicides happen regularly in this country in places just like this. Unfortunately, Mr. Davis has a recent history of suicide in his immediate family.
- Was he planning to murder someone and commit suicide?
- It is my opinion that Mr. Davis is guilty of (City’s PMS) gross misconduct for three reasons:
- The fact that he (with premeditation) brought a loaded handgun and fighting knife into the Law Enforcement Center; which is an otherwise secure facility.
- He elected to maintain those weapons in the workplace for almost two years.
- Finally, he failed to secure either of the weapons. He left them is an unlocked drawer of his desk. Other employees or inmates who work in the facility could have gotten to the weapons.
- Liability and principle.
- If Mr. Davis kills or injures an employee in the future, is the City liable?
- This is a matter of principle that should be protected. If a senior leader or any other employee in this organization (non-post certified) brings two deadly weapons into the work place, how can he or she be trusted in the future? In the last five years, many employees have been disciplined, including termination, for misconduct. This is certainly another one of those cases.
Recommendation: Board of Commissioners enters into negotiations with Mr. Davis to attain his voluntary termination or force the issue.
Summary: As the City Manager, I am prepared to support whatever decision the City Commission makes regarding this issue. I await your directions on this matter.
